...I did not struggle with weight growing up, but after getting married and having five kids, I had moved solidly into the "overweight" population. In 2006 I was able to lose the extra pounds (50 of them) and get to goal. But staying there, that is another story. Slow but steady, the weight has crept back on over the years. So here we go again ...

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Invisible Books

I'll admit it ... I like the supernatural. Angels, vampires, dragons, mermaids ... as I cycle through my various reads, I attempt to alternate topics, not reading two vampire (or whatever paranormal topic) books back to back, as it can get confusing, mixing up the storylines in my mind. I didn't read these three books featuring invisibility that close together, but being a rather unique topic, I thought I'd review them in one blog post... before they fade away in my memory (do you SEE what I did there?)

Things Not Seen: This was the first "invisibility" book I read. It was a while ago (Oct2015 ... thank you GoodReads for keeping track of my reading list.) My son (#4, in 6th grade at that time) had picked it up at school. I like to know what the kids are reading, so I gave it a go too. Here, Bobby had lived a normal life until one morning ... he wakes up and he's invisible. His parents make excuses for his "absence" (school, activities) while they try to figure out what is happening. Clothes are not invisible on his body, and as floating clothes would draw unwanted attention, Bobby goes around naked much of the time. He meets Alicia, who doesn't realize Bobby is invisible at first, because she is blind. The story continues as their relationship develops and they search for an explanation, and a cure ... There are a couple follow up books (Things Hoped For, Things That Are) and my son read the next in the series, but I never got around to it myself.

Invisibility: I read this at the beginning of the year (Jan2017) ... or listened to anyway. Audio edition. Here, Stephen was born invisible ... if he puts on clothes, they disappear. Food that he eats disappears as it enters his mouth. Even "existing" seems to be a struggle. Having his voice heard, being able to touch or move things, he has to really concentrate to make those things happen. He's almost a ghost, except he's alive. A new family moves into the apartment building, and the teenage girl, Elizabeth ... can see Stephen. Stephan can't believe it at first, and Elizabeth doesn't realize that no one else can see him, only her. I really liked the first half of the book, as the alternating chapters/POV told their story. Then the book devolved a bit into a whole "search for the curse" which was a little weird.

Transparent: Having read two "invisibility" books, and comparing/contrasting how things were handled, I was interested in the topic and jumped on the next book I found that dealt with invisibility. This one was FUN. Whereas the other two were dealing with invisibility in a more "realistic" setting, this one takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where similar to X-men, Heroes, Steelheart ... many people have developed abilities. Here we have a female protagonist, 16-year old Fiona. Like Stephen in Invisibility, she was born invisible, but like Bobby in Things Not Seen, clothing doesn't disappear (although food does, or even just putting something in her mouth). In this world of "mutants" she has no problem walking around, just floating clothes (and hat and gloves, to give a better sense of where she is) ... unless she's on a nefarious mission from her mob boss father ... in which case complete invisibility (nakedness) fits the bill better. She and her mother try to run and hide from this mob life, but that is difficult to do, even if (or especially if) you are invisible. This book was fluffy fun and I enjoyed it all. In fact ...

I
bought the sequel. I'm cheap ... I don't buy many books because there
are SO many free ones out there (from Amazon and the local library).
This was only $2.51 for the Kindle download ... kind of a weird price
point. Gotta get that extra penny! While "Transparency" was originally
marketed as a stand-alone, not a series, the author ended up continuing
the story in a second book... "Blindsided."

This
cover definitely portrays the slightly cartoonish feel of the
book(series), and is actually a better match than the cover of the first
one (which makes it look a little more sophisticated and series than it
actually is.) Here again, more fluffy fun.

I'm
sure there are more books out there addressing the sci-fi concept of
invisibility. I've been reading "The Young Elites" series, and one of
the characters there can create a camouflage of invisibility. And of
course there's the cloak of invisibility in the Harry Potter series. I'd
be interested to hear about any other books that feature the main
character being invisible all the time though, just to see how in
compares to what I've read already. I'm also always interested in the
titles ... what other play on words can authors come up with?

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I'm JenB ... this is my journey.

About My Blog ...

As I started this journey (again) I wanted a place to keep a daily diary, to showcase some of the graphs and photos that visually capture the process and to have a place to record my thoughts. This blog is mainly for me... although as long as I'm writing this all down, I might as well put it out there for others to see too.

In addition to my weekly weigh-in, I'll try to post fitness and food features. Because books (reading while riding, or audiobooks while walking) and TV (my entertainment while I elliptical) are part of my journey, I have monthly posts about what I'm watching/reading as well.

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What can I say ... I'm a visual person. I created this blog in part, to help me keep track of many of my graphs which often only seemed to be available for a limited time. I want to keep them!

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Pinterest

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